Washington Watch: A Natural Match
It looks as though the most anti-environment president in modern history may appoint the most anti-environment former bureaucrat in North Carolina history to a key spot in his administration.
Notoriously anti-science former NC Dept. of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Secretary Donald van der Vaart is said to be under consideration to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality. A Texas state official who previously had been nominated for the post recently withdrew as a nominee after coming under fire for similar views.
Of course, van der Vaart has been reported in the running for two other top environmental jobs in the Trump Administration before, with nothing to show for it so far but an advisory council spot which helped usher him out the door from his former state job.
Environmental advocates blasted the possibility of van der Vaart’s appointment to this key national environmental role. A national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) news release last week quoted NCLCV’s Director of Governmental Relations, Dan Crawford, who said, “Donald van der Vaart is an anti-environmental ideologue who consistently stood with polluters over people. While in North Carolina he did nothing to protect our air and water for North Carolinians or future generations. In 2016 the voters of North Carolina rejected the McCrory-Van der Vaart pro-polluter agenda, and the rest of the country should too.”
